Arriving
in Cappadocia I really had no idea what to expect. I’ve never really been one
for pottering slowly around museums, art galleries or historic sites reading
information boards and wowing over cultural phenomena that is supposed to
impress and engage me. Often I associate these places with the guilt I feel for
becoming quickly bored and tired! With it’s famous ‘open air museums’ and big
reputation would Cappadocia really be any different? It was.

I
was energized as we scampered around the cliffside remains of the Cavusin
acient city and my imagination was excited as we wound our way around the
‘fairy chimney’ cone-shaped limestone houses of Zelve and Goreme.I was far from bored climbing the
tunnel-ridden rock towers of Ortahisar and camping amongst the limestone
littered hillsides near Urgup, waking to a sky filled with all colours and sizes
of hot air balloon.

Our
final foray in Cappadocia was a visit to the Kaymakli underground city, an
incredible labyrinth of eight levels with tunnels leading to wineries, living
areas, sleeping quarters, stables, communal kitchens, food storage spaces and
churches. Kaymakli was just one of many underground cities in the area, between
the 5th and 10th centuries and was home to several
thousand early Christians who would move underground when there was threat of
attack.Scurrying about in a space now
well lit by electric lighting it was easy to romanticize the experience. The
huge circular stones sitting ready to block any entrance ways served as a sobering
reminder that this was not an enchanted fairytale experience but must have been
literally dark and desperate times lived out of necessity in order to simply
survive.

Yet
amongst all the ‘normal’ wonders of Cappadocia a great highlight for me was
slowing down and spending some very special time with wonderful friends. We
were delighted to catch up once again with our friends Michael and Lulu and
along with other cycle tourists Rafael (Spanish) and Heike (German) we had a
very cruisy few days and fun 32nd birthday party for Michael. We’ve
now met up with Michael and Lulu in Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and
Turkey!

New
Zealand may have a dramatic climate and fast changing weather systems but never
before have I experienced the temperature changes of the last ten days. Over
three days in Cappadocia temperatures dropped from a high of 30 degrees to a
high of just four degrees. As we cycled through the Taurus Mountains we
encountered flurries of snow, yet soon after were back to shorts, t’s and
jandals on the beaches and banana growing regions lining the Mediterranean
coastline.

Turkey
is a land riddled with grand remains of a rich history. There is so so much
that one can be overwhelmed by what to prioritise and we must be ok with not
doing everything. Fortunately for us along our way, without having to deviate off
our route we’ve sampled the beauties of the island castle at Kizkalesi, the
inspiring castle remains at Anamur, and the peaceful sprawl of Anamurym, an
ancient coastal city from the 3-4th century.

Along
our way the Turkish kindness has consistently prevailed. Somehow within cycle
tourist folklore an expectation has arisen that in Turkey you will be welcome
to camp at petrol stations. Not really knowing how true this was and how this
expectation had come to be we thought we’d give it a shot anyway and have not
been disappointed. Our petrol station camps have come with free wifi, chai,
Fanta, showers, toilets, chilled water and even lentil soup on occasion! With
the feel of a modern day Caravanserai we’ve been consistently warmly welcomed
and cared for and have felt very safe, even in busy areas, camped under
security surveillance cameras and with an attendant being on duty 24hours a
day!

As
it turns out October 15th is a very significant national holiday and Muslim
celebration, Korban Bayram, we’re told similar to the significance of the
Christmas holiday for Westerners. In our naivety we asked some locals if we
could camp in the back yard of their restaurant, imagine doing that in NZ on
Christmas day! Soon enough we were witnessing the traditional killing of their
goat and not long later sitting down to enjoy the annual feast.

Navigating
through Turkey on a map that covers the whole country means it’s often
difficult to really know what’s coming up and certainly what the terrain may be
like. Fortunately the roads with special scenic interest are marked with a
green line and so we’ve based our route loosely around that. The beauty of the
coast of the Eastern Med has exceeded any hopes we had and the size and number
of hill climbs we’ve had to ride has similarly exceeded our expectations . To
reach the flat lands of the Antalya coastline has been both a relief for the
legs and an enormous change. Our quiet roads and small villages have been
suddenly replaced by multi-lane highways and high-rise hotels. The friendly
Turkish village roadside stall has given way to beaches filled with overweight
foreigners sunning themselves to a crisp and riding camels with sun hats! Needless
to say we’ve found Turkey to be a land of incredible diversity.

Where
to from here? The roads are insanely busy, possibly added to by the national
public holiday, roads labelled as back-roads on our map have recently been widened
to four or six lane main highways. We hope to ride to Izmir, leave the bikes
there and bus to Istanbul for a while before returning to Izmir and catching a
ferry to Greece. With every day surprises arise so we will just wait and see
what’s around the corner!

Friday, 11 October 2013

The item that I spent the most time deliberating over in
preparation for our travels was my pair of shoes. In a two month long saga I
scoured Trademe, US shoe sites and Dunedin sales tables. The reason it took so
long was that I was looking for a pair of shoes that was tough, waterproof and
warm for cycling in the blizzards of High Asia, while also being light and
springy for trail and mountain running as we went (and costing less than $50 of
course!). This single memory is now a fascinating insight for me into the
expectations and mindset I held as we prepared for this great adventure from
the dining room at Glendining Ave, and in what ways this has differed from what
we have found.

I haven’t gone running once. Despite all our passion for
trail running, and having on my feet these perfectly running-capable shoes, I
have only broken into maybe a five minute jog on no more than two occasions
that I can remember. I had no idea how all-engaging cycle touring would be. How
much more it is than a physical challenge. My expectations were that on a half
day or a day off the bikes, if we weren’t too tired we might go for a wee
scamper up a hill, explore some off-road terrain and fun little tracks. At the
end of any short day or day off, I read, I sleep, I email home and I eat. There’s
been no running happening here.

A typical end of day

It has surprised me how much energy and time it takes to
find us a safe home at the end of each day, and how to time this with having
the necessary water and wholesome food that we need onboard the bikes. How
dramatically the temperature and weather changes with any altitude gained or
lost on the road, and how we need to find a route that puts us in the right
places for the fast changing seasons of a continental climate. We are often communicating in situations where no English is spoken, and have had to learn a smattering of seven different languages so far, and expand our repertoire of mime. It takes some
thought and shrewdness to maintain the security of our possessions without
truly lockable bags, vehicles or homes. And to stop animals peeing on our tent
every night. The food is different in each place, and it takes time in a new
country to find the foods that we can carry on the bikes and create three meals
a day from. Sickness has been a big challenge. We have spent a lot of time bent
over all manner of toilets, with an impressive track record of giardia
acquirement, and everything is hard when you’re sick. We have found how small
our “bubble” is on a bike, as opposed to a car. When anything changes –
weather, air quality, traffic, gradient, population density, it effects you and
you engage with it. We require frequent stops for food, water and shelter, and
so rely on the kindness and welcome from numerous strangers every day.

I am not writing all this to impress you all, I think most
of you are already more impressed than you ought to be! We have not made a long
line on the world map, we’ve cycled a few squiggles here and there through
Central Asia, and made most of our progress westwards on trains. We have
clocked up some kms, but it comes out at a very poor daily average if you count
all the time we’ve been away. This has surprised me. I had thought we might do
something quite physically impressive, linking huge areas of the globe only by
bike. We have met a number of cycle tourers who do do some amazingly long
journeys through some horrific conditions, and achieve amazing kilometer
counts, and they deserve a lot of respect. But that’s definitely not us. Cycle
touring has been a much more holistically challenging and rewarding experience
than I had imagined from home. Truly remarkable, engaging, humbling and full of
wonderful surprises. The learning is still going on! What will tomorrow bring?